Monday, September 9, 2013

Ultimate Roadblock - Wave 3.5

Roadrock, I mean Roadblock, gets a serious update in this fourth version of the Rock's character from GI Joe: Retaliation. This first version was the single carded nightmare with the thing molded into his hand. Plus limited articulation. Good torso sculpting, though. The second version came from one of the first two 3-packs of figures. better hands, but crappier skin tones and paint apps.The third version finally got Roadblock headed in the right direction. He came with the "battle kata" system of weapons. Pretty cool stuff, but those thigh holsters were just crazy.Now we have the "Ultimate" version of Roadblock. He's still got the battle kata gear, but he also comes with some cool extras. Thankfully, he doesn't have the huge thigh holsters and has a more suitably sized holster for a regular pistol. His vest still holds all of his battle kata gear and his belt still holds the grips, so that's till pretty cool. Careful with those pieces, they're so small, they're almost pre-lost. A baton, two small blades, two large blades, two grips, and the two pistol mounts round out the battle kata system. I wonder what the deal was with all of this stuff? I don't recall any of it from the movie. There were hints of it with RB's fight with Firefly, but that was so quick.I think it was planned, Hasbro made the toy plans, and it was scrapped from the movie. Probably something to do with the "training with Snake Eyes" comment during the movie.

New are sculpts and new paint apps create a more movie accurate version of Roadblock. But what about that face? What the hell happened? Was the Indiana Jones action figure crew in charge of the eye painting? Yikes! What a mess! Fortunately, version 3's head matches nicely with this new version's skin tone and it just works better. I'll have to add a new picture later.Fully loaded with his battle kata gear, Roadblock looks pretty dang cool. Plus he's such a huge figure - very imposing when compared to other Joe figures.I don't have him front of me as I write, so I'll have to rely on the pictures and memory in regards to all of the extra gear. He comes with an awesome M-249 SAW that he can easily hold with a two handed grip.Hasbro did a really nice job with this weapon. Is it new? I'm not sure if it has ever been used before. It's a really nice piece and it works much better than the other huge machine gun that he comes with.Speaking of the big beast, Hasbro did a great job on the sculpting of the 50 cal. It's huge and impressive. It also comes apart. The barrel comes off, along with the handle. The trigger unit also comes off quite easily.If you're not a purist with your toys, I would recommend gluing it together. There's also a belt of bullets to feed into the side of the big beast.Roadblock can hold it easily enough, but the firing mechanism, while more accurate, is a little awkward to hold.It's one of the best sculpted heavy machine guns that has ever come with a Roadblock figure throughout the entire small figure toy run. The first version was iconic and worked quite well with the original Roadblock. Subsequent guns just kept getting bigger and bigger.

The coolest aspect of the big 50 cal is that it fits into the gun mounts on the new Tomahawk. It really looks cool, too! There's still the problem of the Tomahawk being actually undersized for the new figures. It's almost undersized for the 50 cal as well. The rear of it just sticks so far back into the cabin. Looks good, though.I suppose it would be justification to pick up another Roadblock for another 50 cal for the other side. Plus another bad-ass M-249 SAW.Another great feature of Ultimate Roadblock is the paint app of the Rock's upper arm tattoo on his left bicep. It's a pretty decent match for something so small and is well done. The paint apps on my figure are a bit sloppy. The edge of the molded sleeve and the painted edge of the sleeve don't seem to match up.The bigger question for me remains if this guy is actually Roadblock in my bizarre GI Joe world. I've integrated figures from nearly all of the modern spins on GI Joe - from 25th to Rise of Cobra to Resolute to Pursuit of Cobra to 30th to Renegades to Retaliation. There have been quite a few different versions of various characters. A modern version of Roadblock made a couple laughable appearances in the 25th line. Along comes a RoC version exclusive to Walmart that later got reused in the Resolute line. That version kicked ass and really remains my standard for Roadblock. A big and bulky figure that just looks the part. I really don't want to give up that figure as Roadblock.Don't get me wrong, Dwayne Johnson did a great job as Roadblock in the film, but I don't really want to use him as Roadblock in my twisted toy world. Maybe one day I'll figure out how he can be a different character.Hey, why can't he be Sgt. Dwayne Johnson, code name: Rock? Works for me!